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I got back in the saddle today.
NZCH is surrounded by a control zone with what feels like zillions of entry and exit routes. It turns out that you can pretty well predict that you're going to be given whichever route is sanest for whatever it is you're doing, but that doesn't stop the charts from being a bit overwhelming at first glance, and the radio work from being a bit confusing until I get my head around the local reference points. ("Pylons" - where two power lines cross the river. "Two chain" - corner of a forest. The raceway, the TV transmitter, a shopping mall, a particularly distinctive swimming complex, New Brighton pier - they make sense, provided you know where they are...!)
We went to West Melton, which is all of 6 minutes flying time from Chch, for a few circuits and so I could see the place and have the adjacent rifle range(!) pointed out to me (so that I know where the boundaries are and don't fly over it). My flying was a bit rusty and ragged around the edges - surprise surprise - but the instructor was happy that what I demonstrated was safe, just needing to sharpen up a bit.
The NZ flying syllabus includes techniques for flying in mountainous terrain, which of course I've never done before. However it seems I don't need to receive that training in order to get my NZ PPL on the back of my UK license (not that I want to shirk it - I can imagine Alpine flying will be Really Something Else and I'm really looking forward to being able to). So I've been advised to get on with my BFR so that I can get the paperwork done, then we can look into mountain flying in due course.
NZCH is surrounded by a control zone with what feels like zillions of entry and exit routes. It turns out that you can pretty well predict that you're going to be given whichever route is sanest for whatever it is you're doing, but that doesn't stop the charts from being a bit overwhelming at first glance, and the radio work from being a bit confusing until I get my head around the local reference points. ("Pylons" - where two power lines cross the river. "Two chain" - corner of a forest. The raceway, the TV transmitter, a shopping mall, a particularly distinctive swimming complex, New Brighton pier - they make sense, provided you know where they are...!)
We went to West Melton, which is all of 6 minutes flying time from Chch, for a few circuits and so I could see the place and have the adjacent rifle range(!) pointed out to me (so that I know where the boundaries are and don't fly over it). My flying was a bit rusty and ragged around the edges - surprise surprise - but the instructor was happy that what I demonstrated was safe, just needing to sharpen up a bit.
The NZ flying syllabus includes techniques for flying in mountainous terrain, which of course I've never done before. However it seems I don't need to receive that training in order to get my NZ PPL on the back of my UK license (not that I want to shirk it - I can imagine Alpine flying will be Really Something Else and I'm really looking forward to being able to). So I've been advised to get on with my BFR so that I can get the paperwork done, then we can look into mountain flying in due course.
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